history

Standing Up For The BBC

The subject of my blog entry today is probably pretty obvious. I am a staunch supporter of the BBC, and naturally want to defend it when it comes under attack. Like the NHS, it is a world class organisation free at the point of use, which everyone has access to without fear of commercial influence or advertisement. It is normally unafraid to hold those in power to account, and I think we all need to stand up for it. The thing is, when you actually watch the Panorama edit of the footage which caused the current furore, there is no denying that it is misleading: it makes Trump seem to say – or at least imply – something which he did not.

On the other hand, I can’t help suspecting that there are more forces at play here. We all know that the political right do not like the Beeb. Not only does it run counter to the capitalist, commercial principles they so passionately believe in, it is also often unafraid to reveal truths they don’t like. Faced with an organisation unafraid to hold power to account, those in power often move to silence it. With essentially far right forces gaining more and more prominence, not only here in the UK but also in America and all over the world, is it any wonder that the most respected, objective news organisation in the world is coming under attack? Note too how Badenoch and the Tories have joined in the brazen chorus attacking the Beeb – those self-righteous arseholes have long wanted it out of their entitled way. Those on the right are obviously now seising on a mistake the BBC made a couple of years ago and using it to discredit the entire organisation. You only have to look at how this entire shitshow has been spurred on by the rancid spewings of the Torygraph to realise that.

This is all the more reason to stand up and defend it. We all know that the BBC isn’t perfect, but it is one of the best institutions we have. With it’s entire remit at steak, our mediascape risks becoming a commercialised, perverse, right-wing mess. If we want our journalism to remain first class and free from the influence of those who would use it to dictate their fucked up, reactionary, bigotry-soaked worldview to us, we have no choice but to now run to the BBC’s side.

Confederate Flags In Kidbrooke

I just came across something which I frankly found rather unsettling. It had been quite a successful morning up to that point: I bent my specs on my way to bed last night, so I popped to my optician in Charlton to get them sorted. That went well, so, glasses once again sitting straight on my face, I decided to come back home for another cup of coffee. Taking a different slightly more convoluted route back, I was heading through a housing estate near Kidbrooke when I saw a bungalow with the Confederate flag flying outside. To be honest I was astonished: I’m not sure if people realise what that flag means, but as far as I’m concerned it is a symbol of slavery, racism and oppression. It was a disgusting, despicable sight, and to see it here in London makes it even worse.

Needless to say, I came to a halt outside the bungalow. There was an old man sat there in his garden, so naturally I began to make my feelings known to him. He obviously didn’t understand, and said something about being a rebel. That frankly sickened me even further: the flag he was flying was not a marker of courage or rebelliousness, but the will to oppress and enslave; it is a symbol of support for the idea that one ‘race’ has the right to dominate another. It was ultimately tantamount to flying the nazi swastika*, and to see it here in London really was perverse.

I wanted to explain this to the guy but couldn’t be arsed, so I just trundled on. He would not have understood anyway, obviously being one of the growing number of people becoming increasingly political, outspoken and reactionary, yet lacking any real understanding of what they are saying. The sight of such a flag so close to home really was sickening though. I just wish the fool flying it so proudly understood what it represents.

*I make that allusion including all the hideous undertones that flying such a flag in an area decimated by the Luftwaffe eighty years ago would have.

The Greatest Broadcaster Comes to London

It has happened again: Just when autumn is setting in and things are beginning to get a bit dull, something absolutely incredible crops up. I think I have blogged about my respect for Sir David Attenborough before. As far as I am concerned, he is the greatest broadcaster to have ever graced our screens. To think that he started making natural history programmes before either of my parents were born but is still going strong, is utterly, utterly incredible. Given that he turns a hundred next year, you would think he would be enjoying a well-deserved retirement, but you’d be wrong. I just got wind that he is set to present a new series of natural history TV programmes this winter, including one called Wild London, about the wildlife in the metropolis. As fascinated as I also am by this vast, urban microcosm, that is something I now cannot wait to watch.

“Having lived in London for 75 years, David has an intimate knowledge of the city’s natural history and there’s no better guide to introduce us to its most spectacular wildlife secrets….Whether it’s pigeons commuting by tube, snakes slithering along Regent’s canal, parakeets raiding city parks or beavers building a home next to a busy shopping centre, David reveals the incredible wild encounters to be experienced across his hometown.”

Quite frankly, that sounds incredible. Every day, when I go out on my trundles in my powerchair, I head through pretty green parks and along quiet urban streams. London is greener than you might assume, and also a good deal prettier. Over the last fifteen years, I have begun to get to know this vibrant, wild side to the capital, teaming with life. The prospect of watching the greatest of all broadcasters reveal that side of the city to the world, in the fascinating, methodical, immersive way he has always had over the last seven decades, is something I now can’t wait to see.

A Dark Day For London

I am very, very pissed off about what happened here in London yesterday. London is an open, tolerant, welcoming world city, home to thousands of different cultures and people from all over the world; yesterday afternoon saw it’s streets hijacked and trampled by 100,000 mindless morons with no understanding of diversity or value for cultures other than their own. Of course, being me, I went up there yesterday afternoon, although I now wish I hadn’t. At about 11 I set out, taking the Jubilee Line up to Westminster. I had intended to go directly to the counter-protest, but as soon as I got out of the tube station I found myself surrounded by countless flag-waving idiots, many carrying banners which wound me up instantly.

The sight was utterly repugnant. I’ve been to quite a few protests here in London over the years, about a variety of issues. Most of those issues were just and sensible. The gathering of idiots London saw yesterday was neither of those things, but the venting of bile and hate by those too stupid to direct their thoughts and feelings elsewhere. Obviously, I know we should be open-minded and tolerant of those whose views we disagree with – part of valuing diversity is valuing diversity of thought. Yet what I saw yesterday was an insult to those values: most of the people there had been bussed in from across the country; people I doubt had ever met anyone who didn’t speak English as their first language. They were just here to shout and scream, drink larger and hurl abuse. For most of the men I saw yesterday, it was just an exercise in looking ‘hard’: I doubt you could have had any kind of meaningful debate with any of them about the politics at hand. As I found when I went to Canary Wharf a couple of weeks ago, for such people, it seemed to be all about whipping up animosity and social division: demonstrating that they were better than ‘the elites’ – ie those they unconsciously feel inferior or subordinate to. Frankly, it felt like an abject intrusion upon everything that I feel is wonderful about London, like shit being trampled into it’s very streets.

I stayed up there for most of the afternoon. I tried to find the counter-protest, but got lost, eventually crossing the river to the south bank. When I eventually found my way back to Westminster I found the station shut, so I set off for Green Park, trying to avoid the showers. It had been a disturbing, sickening afternoon: I felt very angry indeed about what I had seen, and still do. Such acrid xenophobia has no place here in London, and it felt like the metropolis had been intruded upon by morons with no idea what they were saying. The capital had been hijacked and misrepresented. Surely the country is better than such thuggery; surely we cannot allow the wider world to see us like this. My biggest fear now is whoever organised this gathering of halfwits will feel emboldened and try to do so again. If that happens, those of us capable of rational, independent thought must be ready to show our opposition.

Cable Car Vindication!

I’m suddenly feeling quite pleased with myself, albeit for a fairly random reason. You may remember, a year or two ago, I started talking nonsense about London building new cable cars. I was at least semi-joking, but my reasoning was fairly solid: urban cable-cars would be cheaper and easier to build than brand new tube lines, and probably cause less disruption. Well, it seems I have been vindicated, by Paris no less. According to this video, the Parisians have decided to build a new urban cable car in the south of the city, rather than extending the metro. Their argument goes that it would be cheaper and more efficient than either extending the existing metro line or implementing new bus routes. I think that is a great idea, as gliding over a city is certainly cooler than being driven through it on a crowded bus, or thundering under it on a cacophonous tube train.

Mind you, the cynical teenager voice in the back of my mind is saying that this is just a case of Paris wanting what London has: The cable car in East London glides over the Thames, connecting North Greenwich to The Royal Docks, the O2 Arena to the Excel Centre. Not only is it an efficient way of getting people from one place to the other, it is also a great tourist attraction. The Parisians have clearly looked at it and said “We’ll have some of that!” More to the point, whereas the London cable car crosses the wide Thames River, making the only alternative a bridge or tunnel, the one in Paris won’t cross such an impenetrable geographic feature. The same goes for the cable car in Barcelona, which apparently ferries people up and down quite a steep mountain. In other words, the one in Paris would be pretty much entirely for show, with no physical, practical need for it.

Such cynicism aside though, I still think this is pretty cool, and another reason to go back to the French capital in the not-too-distant future. Who knows, maybe this could be the beginning of such cable cars – even entire networks of them – springing up all over the place. Might they even be the future of urban public transport?

No DLR Extension (This Time)

For some reason I seem to be becoming a London public transport geek. That is to say, London public transport is now one of the subjects I keep an eye on and am excited to hear news about. I want to know if there are any awesome new infrastructure projects like the Elisabeth Line in the works. I was disappointed, then, to hear yesterday that the DLR extension to Thamesmead hadn’t got the go-ahead: there was nothing about it in the Spending Review. I use the Docklands Light Railway quite regularly these days, and if you ask me it’s one of the coolest pieces of London Public Transport, as it winds it’s way over and under the east end. Best of all, all it’s stations are fully wheelchair accessible. Extending it beyond Woolwich into quite a neglected, undeveloped area of the capital could have breathed new life into it.

Then again, as many others are pointing out, that area already has a brand new Elisabeth Line station; and the fact that the DLR extension wasn’t announced this time doesn’t mean it won’t be announced in the autumn or next year. The same goes for the Bakerloo line extension to Lewisham. Such things have a funny way of getting built eventually in the capital. What I suppose I should be even more concerned about is infrastructure projects outside of the capital. The metropolis just got Crossrail, the biggest most expensive transport project in Europe; it can’t really complain. Are other areas of the UK seeing such investment? Around here I can just wheel onto a bus or into a DLR or tube station and get to wherever I want to go across the capital: I fear that that isn’t the case outside the metropolis. What about the more neglected areas of the country? I’ve heard that Manchester is getting an extension to it’s tram network, but what about Stoke-On-Trent, for instance? What about it’s infrastructure? I haven’t been there in quite some time, but from what I hear it has barely had any attention or investment in the last forty years. Such areas weren’t even mentioned yesterday. Surely places like Stoke should get the investment they need before we even start talking about yet another multi-billion pound project for the capital.

Kier Starmer Rapes Chipmunks

I was watching the breakfast news as usual earlier, when a quite unsettling item caught my attention, particularly as a blogger. According to the beeb, “The wife of a Conservative councillor who was jailed after she posted an online rant about migrants is due to have her appeal against the sentence heard on Thursday. [ie today]” Lucy Connolly had been jailed for 28 days after apparently tweeting that she thought a hotel housing asylum seekers should be burned down. If you ask me, of course, twenty-eight days in jail is nowhere near enough punishment for such a vile, disgusting xenophobe: being married to a Tory councillor, she obviously thought she had a right to voice such reactionary, inflammatory tosh with impunity. I find such arrogance sickening of course, and my gut reaction was that she had no right whatsoever to complain.

The obvious problem is, that raises all kinds of issues about the freedom of speech. I naturally believe that anyone should have the right to say whatever they want, online or off, no matter how disgusting or abhorrent other people may find it. Here on my blog, I’m sure I have written things plenty of people may disagree with over the years – does that mean I should go to jail? What would happen if one day I wrote an entry accusing Kier Starmer of raping chipmunks – does that constitute defamation? Thus as vile as any sensible, intelligent person will find what this woman tweeted, her right to voice her opinions must take priority. The moment we start censoring people, the moment we start putting people in jail just for voicing their opinions online, we all loose something extremely valuable.

Of course I am torn by this: I cannot deny that a large part of me thinks that what this repugnant woman tweeted has no place in modern public discourse. We see it more and more: such barely literate morons think it’s cool or trailblazing to go against the politically correct grain, resulting in a slide further and further to the reactionary right. It seems to be becoming fashionable to discriminate, belittle and bully, as people try to imitate so-called online ‘influencers’ like Andrew Tale. People are also feeling more and more pressure to attract attention online, resulting in ever more wild, distasteful things being spouted in an effort to stand out and get noticed. No doubt such factors were what was behind this woman’s vile tweet: I’m not sure she deserved punishing for them or not, but the fact that she has been clearly sets an unsettling precident.

Notes On A Fixed Lift

Just to follow up on this entry from a couple of weeks ago, not that I think anyone will be particularly interested, but I’m pleased to note that the lifts at Star Lane DLR station are working again. On the whole, it must be said that I’m quite impressed at how quickly TFL seems to fix such things. I have encountered broken lifts several times in the past, only to find them fully functional upon my next visit. Obviously it just goes to show how much money there is in TFL and London in general.

In contrast, this morning on the news I heard that one of the very last potteries in Stoke on Trent is about to close. The item mentioned how the pottery industry there has been decimated, bringing the economy of the entire city with it. As someone who was brought up quite close to Stoke and who visited it regularly as a child, I can’t help being struck by the contrast between London and other parts of the country. I know that manufacturing pottery was once part of the very identity of that area, so it might be difficult to see how it could live on after this decline. But surely with the right investment, Stoke can be as vibrant a place as anywhere.

I see wonderful new things being built every day in the capital; each time I go out I find yet another highly gentrified redeveloped new area as I explore the metropolis using it’s state-of-the-art, multi-billion pound transport network (the overground notwithstanding). I know I have touched on this before, but to what extent does all this come at the expense of elsewhere in the country? Frankly, it sounds more and more like places such as Stoke are being left to go to ruin while the front facade of the nation, it’s capital, is endlessly spruced up.

A Sickening Spectacle Nobody Wants To Watch

A couple of days ago I looked up when Danny Boyle was selected to direct the London 2012 Olympic opening ceremony. The answer was 2010, obviously two years ahead of the ceremony itself. I was wondering when we might hear that Los Angeles had selected someone to direct its opening. I know it’s still some time away, but believe it or not I’m already becoming curious about what LA might do.

Such events still fascinate me. It seems to me that Olympic opening ceremonies are unique artistic events in that they draw the entire world’s attention onto one city for a few hours. They thus give a city and the country it represents the once in a lifetime opportunity to show itself off before the entire world. When else do we see incredible spectacles like James Bond meeting queen Elizabeth, a huge flotilla of boats gliding down the Seine or Eric Idle (apparently) being shot out of a cannon, before bursting into Always Look On The Bright Side of Life?

What, then, could we see happen in LA in three years time? To be honest it’s a question which I’m beginning to feel nervous about. I keep hearing that Trump is now trying to turn VE Day in the US into some kind of birthday parade for himself. Frankly, it sounds a bit far fetched but I wouldn’t put it past the self important prick. The question is then, assuming Trump is still in office in 2028, to what extent could he try to turn the ceremony into some kind of sickening spectacle of self-aggrandisement? Again I wouldn’t put it past him; but imagine how utterly repugnant it would be to see the world’s most awesome cultural event commandeered by such a vainglorious charlatan? I’m sure nobody wants to watch that! That’s why I am already so keen to know who might direct the ceremony; it’s something that I plan to keep a fairly close eye on.

The Wonders of Windsor

The week is turning out to be quite an awesome one, thanks largely to John: great bit of cinema, a fantastic evening at the theatre, and yesterday, a wonderful trip to Windsor. To be honest I was feeling slightly cynical about even getting there at one point, as it meant taking the overground and booking ramps. Our train was slightly delayed, so I was starting to think that it could all become pretty farcical. But we got there in the end, and almost instantly I was mesmerised.

Windsor is a wonderful, beautiful place where you can almost smell the history. The town, with it’s pretty little streets, overlooks the Thames, much narrower there than at Greenwich of course. We spent a while looking around, trying to avoid crashing into the hundreds of tourists, before going up to the castle. Windsor Castle is a stunning place – if you have never visited I would recommend it. It is the longest occupied Royal Residence, and has stood for almost a thousand years. The displays in there are jaw-dropping: paintings, models, antiques, and, most fascinating of all, genuine suits of armour. I was captivated. The cool thing is, despite it’s age, it has all been made wheelchair accessible, so I was able to explore like anyone else.

John and I spent about an hour walking around the castle, before going down to Windsor park. To be honest by then I had one eye on my powerchair’s battery gauge as I really didn’t want any more catastrophes, but it was fine. Windsor Park is an incredible place, as beautiful as anywhere I’ve ever been to: there is a long, straight path we spent an hour or so walking down. John took lots of spellbindingly beautiful photos, and I stopped a few times to type a bit. By then, though, it was starting to get late, and I think we were both getting tired, so we caught the train home.

Windsor, then, is a wonderful place: not part of London and certainly feeling quite separate from the metropolis, but close enough to it that we could get there fairly easily. It was a place I had never been to, despite it’s proximity to London; but it certainly whetted my appetite for getting out of the city a bit more.

People Still Don’t Understand Python

It looks like I have once again wandered into a quagmire, albeit an interesting one. Earlier on one of the Monty Python fan groups I keep an eye on, I came across a post essentially saying that comedians had a right to cause offence and it should have no taboos. I, of course, took umbrage at that, as it would mean people could justify discriminating against or offending whoever they wanted under the guise of comedy. That was manifestly not what Python was about: those guys wanted to expose the absurdities of British culture, among other things, not poke fun at or belittle those who could not fight back. As I think I’ve said here before, the fact that Monty Python is now increasingly being invoked as some sort of anti-woke, anti-PC bastion, and used to justify persecution and mockery, is to fundamentally misrepresent it.

However, one of the replies I got cited a film called Blazing Saddles. I had never seen it, so of course I looked it up. What I found was, at first glance, abhorrent: a trailer for some kind of 1970s western ‘comedy’, crammed with shockingly racist language. It looked appalling, so at that I went on my afternoon trundle. Coming back though, I naturally decided to dig a little deeper, and this time found something far more interesting. For example, this Guardian article from January argues that, far from being racist, Blazing Saddles is a satire on contemporary American culture. “Westerns were white American. Certainly, the earliest examples are propagandist. No other culture mythologises its own creation in such a cinematic way. One tried and tested western blueprint is the tale of the great white saviour bringing the savage land to heel. Blazing Saddles turns this formula on its head….What transpires is a torch shone on racist, sexist and bigoted attitudes which absolutely captures the mood and prejudice of the time. Those attitudes still exist.”

Thus, like Python, rather than defending bigotry, Blazing Saddles apparently reveals it’s idiocy. I obviously need to watch it before commenting on it further; yet the fact that it, like Monty Python, is now being invoked as a justification for discrimination still does not sit well with me. People now seem to think they can use whatever derogatory or discriminatory language they want under the guise of humour, and to speak against them is to just not get the joke. Not only does that completely misunderstand the nature of comedy, but it leads us down a very dark, dangerous rabbit hole in which persecution and bullying become acceptable. That is obviously not what the guys behind Python or any other great comedians wanted.

Yet perhaps what is most interesting is how such misunderstandings expose people’s underlying ignorance in a way they wouldn’t have intended. If Blazing Saddles was about shining a light on American racism, the way in which these people have so disgustingly misread it exposes them as the ignorant, barely literate racists they are.

When Patriotism Turns Dark

I just came across this especially interesting Girl Gone London video, in which she, a fairly young American woman who has lived in London for ten years, begins to outline the differences between nationalism and patriotism, and how the two differ depending on which side of the Atlantic you are on. What she says strikes me as increasingly relevant: in the States, kids are forced to recite the Oath of Allegiance every morning; a blind love of country is almost demanded, and any form of national criticism is deeply scorned.

I replied that I was born in the UK, in cheshire, but now live in South-East London. I think it’s fair to say that I love my country: I love things like cricket, british comedy and quaint little pubs. However, I also adore London as a city, the tube, the theatres, and what happened here in 2012 etc. I love that it’s so multicultural, inviting, and that you can meet people from all over the world here. I’m staunchly opposed to Brexit as I think working with our neighbours is the only way we can solve our problems. I don’t think these positions are incompatible: you can love your country and desire global unity at the same time. The problem is, in america, the notion of loving your country seems to mean rejecting all others; the blind belief in american exceptionalism. Patriotism there seems to have a far darker, sinister aspect to it. Frankly, particularly since last year, American patriotism has become particularly dangerous.

Whereas my love for the UK does not exclude an enthusiasm to experience and explore other other places and cultures, American patriotism seems to be becoming increasingly dogmatic and cult-like. The idea that one’s own culture supersedes all others again recalls the darkest chapters in history. This video is worth watching because it illuminates how perverse American patriotism is becoming, and especially since last year I think it is a real cause for concern.